spycraft2fandomcom-20200214-history
Injury and Death
Most often, a special character suffers lethal damage, which causes him to lose either vitality points or wound points. Standard characters, animals, and gear make Damage saves instead. Vitality & Wound Points Vitality Points A character’s class levels and Constitution modifier determine his vitality points. Vitality points are a mixture of endurance and luck, representing a character’s ability to avoid injury. Losing vitality points does not represent actual physical damage but rather combat fatigue, as it gradually becomes more difficult for the character to avoid being physically injured. As a character’s vitality points drop, he’s edging closer to exhaustion and the possibility of a nasty wound. Wound Points A character’s wound points are usually equal to his Constitution score. Wound points represent a character’s ability to sustain injury. As a character’s wound points drop, he acquires abrasions, cuts, and eventually broken bones and worse. Applying Damage Unless otherwise specified, when a special character suffers a standard hit, the damage is subtracted from his vitality points. When he suffers a critical hit, the damage is subtracted from his wound points. A special character suffers no ill effects from damage until and unless one of the following circumstances occurs. *When a character possesses no vitality points, all damage is applied directly to his wound points. *When a character’s vitality points decrease to 0, or his wound points are at less than maximum, he becomes . This condition is applied only once, even if both circumstances are true. *When his wound points are reduced to 0, he falls . *When his wound points are reduced to –1 or lower, he falls and begins . *When his wound points drop to –10 or lower, he is . *When his wound points drop to –25 or lower, his body is . *When he suffers 25–49 points of damage in a single hit, he must make a Fortitude save (DC 1/2 the damage suffered, rounded down). With failure, he rolls 1d20 and adds the damage suffered, and then consults Table 5.5: The Table of Ouch to find his critical injury. *When he suffers 50 or more points of damage in a single hit (of any type), he must make a Fortitude save (DC equal to 1/2 the damage suffered (rounded down)). With failure, he rolls 1d20 and adds the damage suffered, and then consults Table 5.5: The Table of Ouch to find his critical injury. Additionally, his wound points are reduced to –9, at which point he begins or continues to die. NPC Damage Saves Damage Reduction & Resistance Damage Reduction Certain gear and abilities — including some animals’ hides — grant “damage reduction,” which allows a target to ignore some or all damage from each hit. Damage reduction differs from damage resistance in that it affects all damage types equally (with some infrequent exceptions, described later in this section). When a target possessing 1 or more points of damage reduction suffers lethal damage, his damage reduction decreases the damage before it’s applied. Example: Kevin wears a tuxedo liner, which grants 2 points of damage reduction against melee attacks. He is hit with a melee attack and suffers 12 points of damage, but only 10 are applied. Unless otherwise stated, whenever damage reduction reduces a damage total to 0, it also negates any special effects that accompany the damage. Example: Kevin is hit with a poisoned knife, but his armor’s damage reduction reduces the attack’s damage to 0. Kevin brushes off not only the damage, but also the effects of the poison. Damage reduction has the same effect on damage from standard and critical hits. Damage reduction is commonly abbreviated as “DR X/Y,” where “X” is the amount of damage reduction the character possesses against lethal damage inflicted by any attack and “Y” is a list of circumstances under which the damage reduction is negated. An entry of “—“ indicates that no special circumstances negate the damage reduction; for instance, a character with armor granting “DR 2/—“ has two points of damage reduction against lethal damage that no circumstances negate. When damage possesses the quality, the target’s DR temporarily decreases by the number listed in parentheses after the quality tag. The DR returns to its previous value immediately after the armor-piercing damage is applied. Bruising Whenever DR reduces the damage from any one source of injury to 0 or less, the character suffers 1 point of subdual damage. Damage Resistance Certain gear and abilities — including some animals’ hides — grant “damage resistance,” which allows a target to ignore some or all of a certain type of damage. Damage resistance differs from damage reduction in that it affects only one damage type at a time. When a target possessing 1 or more points of damage resistance suffers the designated type of damage other than lethal (e.g. cold, collision, etc.), his damage resistance decreases the damage before it’s applied. Example: A polar bear has 2 points of cold resistance. It is hit and suffers 12 points of cold damage, but only 10 are applied. Unless otherwise stated, whenever damage resistance reduces a damage total to 0, it also negates any special effects that accompany the damage. Example: Acid damage is persistent and inflicts Charisma and stress damage. If damage resistance reduces acid damage to 0, however, the character does not suffer these additional effects. Damage resistance has the same effect on damage from standard and critical hits. If damage resistance and damage reduction both apply to any instance of damage, damage reduction is always applied before damage resistance. Healing Other Damage Types Category:Combat Rules Category:Injury & Death